In this weekend preview we summarise the best five games to follow on your match feed. And make a couple of suggestions for matches that you may otherwise miss.
If you’re scrolling through your match feed this weekend and thinking Saturday looks a bit sparse in terms of top level action, swipe to Sunday, and have a look through Europe’s big five leagues. Or better still, just keep reading this article.
🏴 Premier League: Liverpool vs. Manchester United
In the Premier League, Liverpool, and their biggest home crowd for more than 50 years, will be taking on arch-rivals Manchester United. With the expansion of their Anfield stadium now complete, the Reds welcome the other major powerhouse of English football based in the the North West. And it comes at a good time for the current Premier League leaders.
Yes, both teams lost in Europe during the week, but Liverpool’s 2-1 defeat at Union St. Gilloise, in Belgium, came when they fielded a massively rotated side, and with qualification for the next stage of the Europa League already secured. Manchester United’s home defeat to Bayern Munich in the Champions League, on Tuesday, saw them finish bottom of their group, and miss out on a potential transfer to the same competition that Liverpool find themselves in.
In the league, only five teams have scored less goals than United this season, and they’ve won just one of their last five games (all comps). That, and their patchy form across the campaign, has led to a lot of speculation around Erik Ten Hag’s position as coach of the club. And yet, United still sit sixth in the table, albeit 10 points down on Liverpool.
Its Liverpool’s 100% record at Anfield that has contributed most to their position in the standings, with 21 of their 37 points coming from the seven games played on their own patch.
Can Ten Hag get a response out of his side? Or will this go the way of the form book?
🇪🇸 LaLiga: Real Madrid vs. Villarreal
In Spain, Real Madrid have another opportunity to move above Girona at the top of the table when they play Villarreal at the Bernabéu on Sunday evening. Madrid and Girona have been playing cat and mouse for a few rounds now, with the gap from Madrid in second, to Atlético in third, currently sitting at five points. But with Girona not in action until Monday, there’s a chance for Madrid to make up the two point deficit they have on the Catalan club.
A win would extend Madrid’s unbeaten run in the league to 10 games. And taking in to account their Champions League campaign, they are currently 15 games without defeat. Tuesday’s last gasp win at German side Union Berlin saw the Spanish giants makes it six wins from six in this season’s group stage. Manchester City were the only other side to manage that feat this season.
Villarreal come in to the game having also won 3-2 during the week. They were victorious at Rennes, a result that saw them top their group in the Europa League, and progress to the Round of 16, as the club look to emulate their own success in that competition when they lifted the trophy back in 2021. In the league, the Yellow Submarine sit mid-table having been unable to string together a consistent run of results. For example, their last three games have seen them lose to Real Sociedad, draw with Sevilla, but beat Osasuna.
🇩🇪 Bundesliga: Bayer Leverkusen vs. Eintracht Frankfurt
Having provided the shock of the season so far when they thrashed Bayern Munich by five goals to one last weekend, Eintracht Frankfurt now turn their attention to Leverkusen, the German league leaders.
Yes, second meets third when Bayern play Stuttgart, later on Sunday, but our main focus does remain with Xabi Alonso’s swashbuckling side. Leverkusen extended their unbeaten run to 23 competitive games during the week when they thrashed Norway’s Molde 5-1, completing a Europa League group stage where they won all six of their fixtures.
Taking the league on its own, Leverkusen can boast the best defensive record – they are conceding at a rate of 0.9 goals per game, the second best possession stat (60.1%), the third best xG (28.2), and the most accurate passes per match (588). All that has resulted in 11 wins from their 14 games, and a four point advantage over the chasers in the table.
If last weekend’s result was a highpoint for Frankfurt, they were brought back down to earth by a 2-0 defeat, at Aberdeen, in what was essentially a dead rubber in a Europa Conference League group from which they have already secured qualification. Back in the league, they start the weekend in seventh and could break in to the top six, should they spring another surprise result.
🇫🇷 Ligue 1: LOSC vs. PSG
It might not be talked about that much but everything is actually going reasonably well for Luis Enrique during his first season with Paris Saint-Germain. Despite being at risk of a Champions League embarrassment, they drew with Dortmund, and progressed from the so called Group of Death. And back in the league, they keep picking up results while their early season title rivals begin to stutter.
The Parisians have lost just once in the league so far, and they come in to the weekend’s clash with Lille having won nine of their last 10 league games. That includes wins over second placed Nice, third placed Monaco, plus Reims, and rivals Marseille.
LOSC should provide another test though – they sit fourth, nine points down on the leaders, and haven’t lost since September. In the 14 games they’ve gone unbeaten since then, they’ve only conceded four times, and only twice in the league. In midweek, they sealed top spot in their Europa Conference League group having benefitted from three converted penalties in a win over Kaksvik, of the Faroe Islands.
Last time these sides met back in February, late goals from Kylian Mbappé and Lionel Messi saw PSG come back from 3-2 down to win 4-3 in the fifth minute of stoppage time. We’ll be hoping for similar entertainment on Sunday.
🇮🇹 Serie A: Lazio vs. Inter
In Italy, the traditional big name Sunday headliner sees leaders Inter head to the capital, where they face Lazio, at the Olimpico.
Last season’s runners-up have had a slower start to the new campaign, and they start the weekend down in tenth. Inter, by virtue of playing last, could have been overtaken by Juventus, who play on Friday night for the third week in a row.
But playing catch up appears to suit Simone Inzaghi’s side. Juve have gone above them in both of those previous matchdays only for Inter to convincingly win their games – 3-0 at reigning champions Napoli, and 4-0 against Udinese. The 1-1 draw with Juventus at the end of November was the only time Inter have dropped points in their last seven. They did however draw a blank in the week, though, but that was all they needed to progress from their Champions League group alongside opponents Real Sociedad.
In fact, both sides will be in Monday’s draw for the Round of 16 – Lazio lost at Atlético Madrid but still went through as group runners-up.
Both sides will obviously want to go in to that draw on a high following a positive result.
Plus two hidden gems from a little deeper in your match feed…
🏴 EFL Championship: Ipswich Town vs. Norwich City
In England’s second tier, there’s a reunion between regional rivals, Ipswich Town and Norwich City, on Saturday afternoon.
Ipswich are back in the Championship after four years trying to get out of the third tier and, quite frankly, the season couldn’t have gone much better. They sit second in the table with 51 points after 21 games and with the best goal scoring rate of anyone in the division (2.1 goals per game).
Norwich, who hail from Norfolk, the neighbouring county to Ipswich’s Suffolk, are enduring a rare second season at this level having previously bounced around between the Premier League and Championship. And after a thirteenth place finish last term, they are currently sat eleventh, but have lost just one of their last six league games. And they come into this game with a long unbeaten record against the Tractor Boys – Ipswich last beat them back in 2009.
🇳🇱 Eredivisie: AZ Alkmaar vs. PSV Eindhoven
We’ve included this fixture because of the unbelievable run that PSV find themselves on this season. The Eindhoven club have won all FIFTEEN of their league fixtures to date, and during the week, they qualified as group runners-up to Arsenal in the Champions League. They’ve therefore made the knockout stages in Europe’s premier competition for the first time since 2016.
Providing this weekend’s test to that 100% domestic record are AZ Alkmaar. They’ve enjoyed a less successful week in Europe, going out of the Europa Conference League on a losing note having gone down to a 2-0 defeat at Polish club Legia. Back in the league, Pascal Jensen’s side have won 10 of their 15 games and sit third in the table, two points down on second placed Feyenoord, but obviously, so way off their opponents on Sunday afternoon.
PSV won the KNVB Cup last season but have finished as runners-up in the league for the last four consecutive seasons completed in the Netherlands. So, now under the management of Peter Bosz, they’ve be gunning to go one better.
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Cover Image from IMAGO